catulus

Forms

catulus m (genitive catulī, feminine catula); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kat-elo-, which also gave Umbrian katel, the name of a certain sacrificial animal.^[2][3] De Vaan notes words of a similar shape in Germanic and Slavic, such as Middle High German hatele (“goat”), Old Norse haðna (“young goat”) and Serbo-Croatian kȏt (“litter, breed”), but thinks an Indo-European origin unlikely, since the Slavic forms do not fit the vowel and the meanings do not match well.^[2] The OLD compares Middle Irish cadla (“goat”) with a “perhaps”.^[3] Lewis & Short took it as a diminutive of catus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Asinaria, where a new lover fawns even on the puppy of the house.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is first a puppy or young dog, and Horace uses it of hunting dogs of any age.^[3] It is also the young of other animals: Plautus has a sow trampling her young, Lucretius a panther's cub, Virgil and Horace lion cubs, and Pliny the Elder even young dolphins.^[3][4] Lucilius uses it of a kind of iron fetter, as does Festus; according to Szemerényi this sense is a calque on Ancient Greek σκύλαξ (skúlax, “puppy; iron neck-chain”).^[2][3] Church Latin glosses it cub or whelp.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a puppy and of a sow's young.^[3][5]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a fetter worn with manacles and a collar.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of young dolphins.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young dog, puppy, whelp; also a dog of any age.^[3][4][1]
2. The young of other animals, a cub.^[3][4][6][1]
3. A kind of iron fetter.^[3][2][1]

Word family

• catulārius
• catulīnus
• catuliō
• catellus
• catulaster

Usage notes

Catulus was also a cognomen of the gens Lutatia, borne by Gaius Lutatius Catulus, consul in 242 BC, and by two Quintus Lutatii Catuli, consuls in 102 and 78 BC; the second gave his name to the first book of Cicero's Academica.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson